Historical Analysis: Tracking, Problematizing, and Reterritorializing Achievement and the Achievement Gap (original) (raw)
Related papers
The No Child Left Behind Act and the Black-White Achievement Gap
2016
The present article probes into the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2002 and appraises its impact on closing the black-white achievement gap in American public education. Aiming at boosting academic achievement in schools across the United States, rising the performance of underprivileged students to the level of their more affluent counterparts and magnetizing qualified professionals to teach in every classroom, the NCLB is in effect the end product of a series of noteworthy embryonic and evolving key federal educational policies and reforms, recurring reauthorizations of previous laws, and suggested recommendations made out of a significant number of educational commissions and summits, from the foundation of the American Republic to the eve of its enactment in 2002. Despite considerable efforts to address racial disparities, millions of American students, particularly blacks, continue to attend schools that are not separate but grossly unequal in both resources and academic ou...
Education Sciences
Data that are derived from high stakes testing in the United States have created rhetoric of fear and criticism around our public K–12 educational system. Stakeholders often blame these low-test scores on the school, administration, or teachers. Due to the way that this data is shared with the general public Different from this narrative, within many schools, high stakes testing data are reported in an aggregated fashion, usually by students’ race. While the general public may be pointing their finger at schools, administrators, or teachers for poorly achieving students, these folks can quickly shift the blame to certain populations of students who are not performing well on standardized tests. Teachers spend time sorting and labeling children into groups and categories in an effort to “fix the problem”. While sometimes well intended, the planning, instruction, and assessment of daily and weekly instruction is focused on an end result of getting particular groups of students to scor...
The Academic Achievement Gap of Black American StudentsVis-à-vis Whites and Asians
2017
The black-white test score gap is an empirical problematic that dates back to the 1940s. In many standardized tests the mean scores of black students on average are typically at least 1 standard deviation below the mean scores of white students. As Roland G. Fryer Jr. and Steven D. Levitt (2004) point out, ―a wide variety of possible explanations for the test-score gap have been put forth. These explanations include differences in genetic make-up, differences in family structure and poverty, differences in school quality, racial bias in testing or teachers‘ perceptions, and differences in culture, socialization, or behavior. The appropriate public policy choice (if any) to address the test score gap depends critically on the underlying source of the gap‖ (447). For the most part, conservative thinkers emphasize the former two approaches, i.e., genetic make-up and differences in family structure and poverty, and prescribe standardization of curriculum, testing, extra assistance progr...
Toward a Theory of African American School Achievement. Report No. 16
1993
Past attempts to develop an explanatory model for African-American school achievement have focused disproportionately on failure. But if one considers the long and persistent denial and limiting of educational opportunity to African Americans, from slavery to the present, and African Americans' corresponding achievements, the historically and educationally useful question becomes: How have African Americans succeeded in producing a leadership and intellectual class? This paper reviews the research on theories of African-American school achievement, examining the work of black family scholars on racial socialization, recent studies of the social constiuction of "whiteness," and ongoing investigations about the relative power of the cultural differences versus social mobility explanations of school achievement among racial minorities. The cultural differences model is problematized and reformulated to include the concept of whiteness as a social construction with a cultural corollary. It is argued that in order to achieve in school, African-American children have to develop competency in the negotiation of multiple identities, including membership in: (1) mainstream society; (2) the Black community defined as a racially discriminated group; and (3) a cultural group in opposition to which whiteness has been constructed as a social category. (Contains 201 references.) (MDM)
No white child left behind: The academic achievement gap between blacks and whites
2007
Without the support and understanding of Eric, my husband, and my children, Rachael, Kirsten, and Tristan, as well as the consistent encouragement from Sylvia and Walter, my parents, this paper would not have been completed. A special thanks to Angela Drake, my friend and fellow classmate, who understood better than anyone the pressure associated with this task and the joys of accomplishing what seemed to be impossible. I would also like to thank the Department of Sociology for not only providing the resources for conducting this study, but also provided excellent instruction throughout my graduate program. Dr. Twyla Hill encouraged me to improve my writing skills and laid a solid foundation for social science writing that will follow me throughout my career. I would like to thank Dr. Jodi Hertzog for her continuous expectations for improvement, her unfailing confidence in my research abilities, and her continued support and assistance in future endeavors. Dr. Ron Matson was my balance throughout the graduate program. I thank him for his mentorship and encouragements. Most importantly, I would like to thank Dr. David W. Wright, my advisor and advocate, for his passion to see his students succeed, vast knowledge, constant support, tremendous expectations, and the constant revisions he required that only made this paper better than expected. Dr. Wright will always be the standard by which I measure my work.
Multicultural learning and teaching, 2008
Problems facing African Americans students are complex and numerous. In this article, we describe current educational contexts (i.e., high standards, accountability, and standardized test scores). In addition, we discuss the realities confronting African American students through West's (1994) lenses of paranoia and poverty. Finally, we present how these issues can be addressed.